Yet again his Columbia team mates gave him a perfect lead out and then Cavendish surged to his 11th victory of the season and the 39th victory of his career. Alessandro Petacchi tried to come off his wheel but when he hit the wind he did not have the power to get near Cavendish, who crossed the line and celebrated his 24th birthday a day late with his usual one arm victory salute.

There was a very British celebration beyond the finish line. Mark’s fiancee Melissa, her parents and British Cycling’s Dave Brailsford, Max Sciandri, Fran Millar and Shane Sutton proudly watched him win.

Most of the riders from the Great Britain Under 23 Academy were also in the stands, enjoying a precious lesson in how to win major races and the responsibilities victory involves, while a dozen Cavendish tifosi from Bar Grazia in his Italian hometown of Quarrata, wore special pink t-shirts and waved union jacks.

Cavendish celebrated with all of them and admitted that winning in Florence, close to his Italian home was special.

“I always said there was three stages for me in this Giro: I knew had a chance of winning whilst wearing the pink jersey in Trieste; then I wanted to win the Milan Show stage and I wanted to win here close to my home. It’s an important win for me.”

“I have an apartment in Quarrata, 20km from here, we went near it in the final 10km and a lot of people came to see me. My fiancee Melissa is here and so are friends from Quarrata. It’s important to win when you’ve got people watching. It’s always beautiful to make them proud.”

Asked if it was his best win in this year’s Giro, Cavendish said: “It was certainly the most difficult. There were a lot of teams getting desperate for success and putting all their eggs in one basket in the finale.”

“It makes it difficult for us because we’ve also got GC guys. I’m lucky that my guys are super, super dedicated. Kanstantsin Siutsou is here for the GC but did a lot of work in the last 10km. Edvald (Boasson Hagen) is riding his first grand Tour and he’s tired but he still did a great job. I think Mark Renshaw is the best lead out man in world! Not only in the last metres, he did a lot of work in last kilometre. I’m lucky that I don’t need to look around in the finale, but just follow his back wheel and then finish it off.”